BBC Proms / Ten Pieces [July 29; Proms 19 & 20]

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Comedian Josie Lawrence and young star, Paapa Essiedu are today announced as actors for this year’s BBC Ten Pieces Prom.

For a fourth year running, the BBC’s ground-breaking classical music education initiative, Ten Pieces returns to the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday 29th July. Josie Lawrence and Pappa Essiedu join ‘Musical Spell Caster’, Naomi Wilkinson to guide the audience through this family-friendly Prom where some of the greatest pieces of classical music ever written will be heard, in a concert centred on the theme of ‘home’.

Josie Lawrence and Pappa Essiedu, familiar faces to the world of both stage and screen, make their Proms debuts in this project. Best known for her work with the ‘Comedy Store Players’, Lawrence rose to fame through involvement in the television series, Whose Line is It Anyway?, and latterly, in BBC One continuing-drama, Eastenders and Channel 4’s Humans. Recipient of the 2016 Ian Charleson Award for his title role in Hamlet and Edward in King Lear (Royal Shakespeare Company), Essiedu has had an illustrious career to date, including co-founding award-winning theatre company, Invertigo.

Comedian & actor, Josie Lawrence, said:
“I am delighted to be making my BBC Proms debut this year! Ten Pieces is a brilliant initiative reaching so many children across the country and teaching them about the joy of getting creative with the arts. I can’t wait to see you all on Sunday for a whirlwind ride through some of the biggest and best pieces of music as I join the fantastic forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers!”

This summer’s BBC Ten Pieces Prom features a number of other highlights, including collaborations with English PEN, an arts charity that works with young people from asylum-seeker and refugee backgrounds, and London Music Masters, an organisation focussed on reaching children and young people in London’s inner-city schools. The Ten Pieces Children’s Choir will once again welcome over 400 children from across the Greater London area to take to the Royal Albert Hall stage, alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers under conductor Rafael Payare.

Aimed at inspiring a generation of children to get creative with classical music, BBC Ten Pieces marks the biggest commitment the BBC has ever made to classical music education in this country.